Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) announced in a web video Monday the he will run as a candidate for his old Senate seat that he lost to Democratic Sen. Jim Webb in 2006.
“Friends, it’s time for an American comeback, a comeback with leaders in Washington who listen to we the people,” Allen said in a video on his website www.georgeallen.com.
“Today, I’m announcing my candidacy for the US Senate,” he announces in the video.
Allen, 58, who served as governor of the state from 1994 to1998, lost to Webb by a mere 0.39 percent of the vote.
At the time, Allen was a popular incumbent senator who was also thought to be a potential 2008 presidential candidate. However, Allen found himself in a political firestorm after he referred to a young Indian-American intern for Webb as a “macaca” at a campaign rally. The word is an ethnic slur used by white colonists in North Africa, the birthplace of Allen’s mother.
Webb has not yet decided whether he will run for re-election. If he does not, Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is expected to jump in on the Democratic side.
Tea Party candidate Jamie Radtke, a mother of three from a Richmond suburb, has already entered the race, having announced in December that she will seek the Republican nomination.